My Pages On Different Subjects which Hyperlinked to all my Blog Posts

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Galaxy
warps light of distant exploding star, greatly increasing its brightness. An
immense cosmic magnifying glass has given astronomers an unprecedented view of
a distant exploding star. The discovery demonstrates that astronomers can spot
supernovas that are seemingly too far away to be detected.

The
supernova PS1-10afx, located more than 9 billion light-years away, first
appeared in 2010 images from the Pan-STARRS1 sky survey. It shined about 30
times as brightly as a typical supernova at that distance. Last April, a team
including astronomer Robert Kirshner from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics published a study that classified PS1-10afx as a new type of
ultrabright supernova.But Robert Quimby, an astronomer at the Kavli Institute
for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe near Tokyo, was skeptical. He
found that nearly every measurable characteristic of the supernova — including
its color, temperature and duration of peak brightness — matched the profile of
the most commonly found supernova, called type Ia. The only thing that set
PS1-10afx apart was its extreme brightness.

Quimby
wondered if something had made the supernova appear brighter than it actually
was. He knew that the intense gravity of galaxies and other massive objects
causes light to bend around them. If such a galaxy is positioned directly
between a distant object and Earth, this light-bending effect can make the
faraway object appear much brighter, analogous to the way a magnifying glass
bends light to enlarge a faint object. This effect is called gravitational
lensing.To test his hypothesis, Quimby used the Keck I telescope in Hawaii to
take a closer look at the region where PS1-10afx once shined. The telescope
detected a large reservoir of gas about 8.5 billion light-years away. The gas
suggested the presence of a galaxy lying between PS1-10afx and Earth that
probably served as a gravitational lens. Quimby shared his findings January 8
at the American Astronomical Society meeting.Kirshner said the Keck findings
are convincing but not definitive. He would like to see more-detailed
observations that demonstrate that the galaxy is massive enough and lined up
properly to act as a lens.Nonetheless, Kirshner is excited about the potential
significance of Quimby’s work. Astronomers already use gravitational lenses to
identify objects that would otherwise be too far or too faint to detect; a new
Hubble Space Telescope survey is using the technique to find galaxies that
formed a mere several hundred million years after the Big Bang. The opportunity
to also spot distant supernovas with this technique is enticing, Kirshner
said.Quimby said that finding other distant stellar explosions could help
astronomers measure the expanding universe. Type Ia supernovas shine with
almost exactly the same brightness, allowing astronomers to pin a precise
distance to each one. But a gravitationally lensed supernova’s light will
travel slightly different distances depending on the path it takes as it bends
around the lensing galaxy and thus will get stretched different amounts by the
universe’s expansion.

2) Mother
lode:

Superhero
sugars in breast milk make the newborn gut safe for beneficial bacteria A bonanza
of potent disease-fighting compounds has been discovered in a surprisingly
common source the breasts of every nursing mother on the planet. Human milk,
the only substance that evolved to feed and protect us, seems to contain a
trove of medicines just now being unlocked by scientists.“We go down to the
bottom of the ocean to find new compounds and test them out against diseases,”
says nutritional scientist Lars Bode of the University of California, San
Diego. “But if we just look at the natural compounds in human milk, we’ll be
surprised at what we find.”At the forefront of breast milk’s potential lies a
diverse set of sugar molecules called human milk oligosaccharides. Although
sculpted by 200 million years of mammalian evolution, the sugars don’t feed infants
at all. Instead, they play the role of microbial managers, acting as liaisons
between the infant’s newly available intestinal real estate and the throngs of
microbes that seek to call it home.These oligosaccharides serve as sustenance
for an elite class of microbes known to promote a healthy gut, while less
desirable bacteria lack the machinery needed to digest them. And recent
research has shown that the sugars act as discerning bouncers as well: The
molecules prevent pathogens from latching onto healthy cells, routing
troublemakers into a dirty diaper instead. The oligosaccharides also defuse
bombs by calming an infant’s emerging immune system so it doesn’t overreact
against friendly bacteria.Feeding the troops Many oligosaccharides provide
ready-to-eat meals for favorable microbes, giving beneficial species a leg up
over less appealing ones. Newborns with healthy microbes are apt to
thrive.Oligosaccharides found in human milk might even hold keys to staving off
disease in vulnerable children, a notion that keeps Boston College biochemist
David Newburg toiling in the lab late at night. In some scenarios, he suggests,
the sugars might even supplant the use of antibiotics.

Newburg
and others hope to extract knowledge from breast milk components to thwart
disease in babies not receiving this superfood. High on the list are premature
infants clinging to life in neonatal intensive care units without access to
breast milk and toddlers in developing countries who are susceptible to deadly
diarrheal diseases after weaning. Even adults undergoing gut-stripping
chemotherapy or antibiotic treatments might stand to benefit from the
protective sugars.

But
extracting or producing human milk oligosaccharides on an affordable,
industrial scale won’t be easy. Synthesizing the sugars is an expensive
headache because the molecules about 200 of which have been identified so fa
are put together in a dizzying array of configurations. Some scientists are
placing their bets on pulling oligosaccharides out of cow’s milk, although the
sugars found there are less abundant and qualitatively different from their
human counterparts. Others are turning to genetic engineering with hopes of
designing microbes that can mass-produce the most useful oligosaccharides.Along
with major players such as the Gates Foundation and the formula and dairy
industries, researchers and clinicians are striving to understand and in some
ways re-create the health-promoting powers of a tailor-made substance that
nature has had millennia to perfect. They have big shoes to fill.

Complex
sugar supercrew

The train
of milk oligosaccharide discovery started rolling in 1900, when microbiologists
noticed that the feces of breast-fed infants contained different amounts of
some bacterial species than those of bottle-fed infants. Around the same time,
chemists discovered a novel carbohydrate component in human milk, later
revealed as the oligosaccharides. By 1954, scientists had dubbed these sugars
the “bifidus factor,” as they fueled the growth of Bifidobacterium species
abundant in the feces of breast-fed infants.Fast-forward to 2013, and
researchers are still trying to identify the sugars and unravel all their
capabilities. The collection of different oligosaccharides in human milk is a
ball-and-stick modeler’s dream (or nightmare), but the ingredient list for the
oligosaccharides’ recipe is deceptively simple: Only five simple sugars (called
monosaccharides) serve as building blocks.

When two
of these monosaccharides glucose and galactose get together, they form lactose,
which people can digest and use for energy. From there, more and more
monosaccharides jump on, forming a conga line of sugars. But the real
complexity comes into play when new branches diverge from the line, producing a
dazzling array of chemical structures.Unlike the linear, orderly synthesis of
DNA or protein molecules, oligosaccharides assemble Wild West–style. “For all
we know, the linkages could be totally random,” says milk biochemist Daniela
Barile of the University of California, Davis. “They’re very unpredictable and
there are hundreds of possible structures.”

Although
a smorgasbord of oligosaccharides have already been spotted using an
ultrasensitive detection technique called mass spectrometry, Bode expects newer
techniques to uncover still more. Harder will be figuring out all of the
sugars’ roles and which are most important for health.

Breast-fed
bacteria

The
growing list of jobs the oligosaccharides perform mirrors the burgeoning
diversity of their structures. At UC Davis, researchers focus on the sugars’
primary function—feeding and nurturing the
beneficial bacteria that live in the infant gut.To sniff out which
oligosaccharides the various species of bacteria consume, microbiologist David
Mills’ team extracts Bifidobacterium from infant feces and feeds the bacteria
different oligosaccharides.Healthy, full-term, breast-fed infants tend to have
a gut microbiota dominated by various species of the oligosaccharide-consumer
Bifidobacterium. But premature infants typically harbor fewer bifidobacteriaand
more potentially pathogenic microbes such as Escherichia coli and Clostridium
difficile. Of preterm infants, 3 to 7 percent will develop a potentially
life-threatening illness called necrotizing enterocolitis, an inflammatory
disease that destroys the intestinal lining and exposes the infant bloodstream
to hordes of bacteria normally cordoned off in the gut. Ten to 50 percent of
babies with NEC ultimately succumb to the disease, with the lowest birth weight
infants at most risk.

Breast-feeding
halves an infant’s chances of getting NEC. While scientists don’t yet know
whether a preemie’s distorted microbiota causes NEC, observational studies have
shown that changes in the microbiota precede disease onset.UC Davis
neonatologist Mark Underwood recently teamed up with Mills to conduct a small
clinical trial in premature infants in the neonatal ICU that were being fed
either their mother’s milk or infant formula (a decision made independently of
the trial). The researchers spiked the formula or the breast milk with one of
two Bifidobacterium strains: one that consumes oligosaccharides and one that
does not.Fecal analysis revealed that the babies who were fed breast milk plus
an oligosaccharide-consuming strain of bacteria, Bifidobacterium longum ssp. infantis,
had more beneficial microbes. “When you put in the breast milk and the B.
infantis together, then you get B. infantis colonization,” says Underwood. But
when B. infantis don’t get nourished by the oligosaccharides in breast milk,
Underwood hypothesizes, “they fade away quickly and don’t get
established.”While the study wasn’t large enough to establish protection
against NEC, Underwood hopes that the trial will pave the way for larger tests.
Especially in infants whose mothers produce little or no breast milk,
bolstering formula with a combination of oligosaccharides and probiotics could
help prevent NEC in the most vulnerable infants.Depending on blood type, the
stage of lactation and other factors, the milk oligosaccharide profile varies
from woman to woman. This could explain why some infants develop NEC in spite
of being breast-fed, Bode says. Reporting in Gut in 2012, his team showed that
a specific human milk oligosaccharide helps prevent NEC in rats. In the study,
only one oligosaccharide, a branched beauty called disialyllacto-N-tetraose,
dampened the disease. And research by Mills and Underwood showed that the milk
oligosaccharide content from women delivering at preterm differed from those
giving birth at full term. Bode envisions one day mixing NEC-busting
oligosaccharides into the breast milk of mothers who lack them and boosting
premature infants’ chances of getting out of the neonatal ICU alive.

Immune tuners

Beyond feeding
bacteria in the gut, the milk oligosaccharides might cultivate a healthy
microbiota by dialing down the immune system. Bode argues that a toned-down
immune response is crucial for successful colonization of the gut by microbes.
The sugars were discovered as “food for bugs,” Bode says, “but I believe
they’re so much more than that.”A tiny fraction of the sugars appear to find
their way into a newborn’s bloodstream. Bode and others have detected
oligosaccharides in the urine of infants, suggesting that the sugars and their
influence could extend well beyond the gut. “Milk oligosaccharides may be able
to reduce inflammation throughout the body,” he says. In one study,
oligosaccharides reduced interactions between inflammatory immune cells and
cells that line blood vessels. “The oligosaccharides,” Bode says, “are able to
keep the immune system in check.”Bode’s team has also produced a slew of
studies that demonstrate human milk oligosaccharides’ most provocative power—flushing
pathogens out of an infant’s body before they get a chance to wreak havoc. The
researchers reported on September 16 in the Journal of Pediatric
Gastroenterology and Nutrition that the sugars block the attachment of a nasty
strain of E. coli to the cells that line the intestine, thwarting the
pathogen’s ability to infect neonatal mice. The microbe is responsible for
deadly diarrheal diseases that plague infants and children, especially in
developing countries where access to clean food and water is lacking.

Milk oligosaccharides
that reach the bloodstream may even usher bladder-infecting E. coli right out
of the urinary tract, the research team has also found.

For more than two
decades, Newburg’s group has been compiling a hit list of pathogens that fall
prey to milk oligosaccharides, starting with the discovery that the sugars
could disarm a toxin secreted by some forms of E. coli. “Then we tested the
oligosaccharides against various pathogen models and this is my favorite story
it worked against all of them,” Newburg recalls. “We thought we’d made a
mistake.” He and others have since discovered, mostly through cell culture
studies, that the sugars may dash the diarrhea pipe dreams of such microbial
villains as salmonella, cholera, rotavirus, norovirus, a campylobacter-caused
gastroenteritis and multiple strains of E. coli.

Newburg envisions one
day giving toddlers oligosaccharide supplements to stave off diseases that tend
to creep in following weaning, especially in poor countries where diarrheal
diseases abound. But the hunt for potential sources of the sugars has proved challenging.

3)
Researchers Pursuing Arthritis Protein:

Chronic inflammation poses something of a
mystery for researchers. If we become infected, the body immediately takes
steps to repair and tidy it up. This process manifests itself as inflammation,
which stems from a high level of activity in the immune cells, the body's
defence against bacteria and viruses. But it does not always go according to
plan. Every so often, the body's immune system over-reacts, and the
inflammation develops into a chronic condition, resulting in diseases such as
arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. However, researchers are
now a step closer to understanding what happens when the immune system
over-reacts and causes chronic inflammation"Through analysing blood cells,
we have observed that a particular protein called TL1A can get healthy cells to
behave like those we see in chronic inflammation. This is bringing us closer to
unlocking the mystery of inflammation," says Kirsten Reichwald, PhD
student at the Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Faculty of Health and
Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. The results have been published in
PLOS ONE.

Biological
treatment fights arthritis

Today,
doctors can use so-called biological medicines for treating arthritis, which
has radically changed the outlook for patients. Biological treatment works by
impeding the harmful substances that are partly responsible for advancing the
chronic inflammation in the body. Almost 40 per cent of arthritis patients
experience a positive effect when taking biological medicines."Existing
biological treatment means that doctors today can halt the diseases instead of
just relieving the symptoms," explains Kirsten Reichwald.

However,
in order to block the right substances, doctors need detailed information about
the processes that cause chronic inflammation. The researchers therefore
studied cells from 50 blood donors from the blood bank at Rigshospitalet in
Copenhagen, and concluded that the protein TL1A has a key role in the development
of the inflammation.

"Our
latest findings tell us, that the TL1A protein takes part in driving the
inflammation, and therefore it makes sense to try and block the protein with
biological medicines," says Kirsten Reichwald, who hopes that her future
research will help to provide even more specific knowledge about inflammation.

Researchers
at the UNC School of Medicine have deployed a potential new weapon against HIV
-- a combination therapy that targets HIV-infected cells that standard
therapies cannot kill. Using mouse models that have immune systems composed of
human cells, researchers led by J. Victor Garcia, PhD, found that an antibody
combined with a bacterial toxin can penetrate HIV-infected cells and kill them
even though standard antiretroviral therapy, also known as ART, had no effect.
Killing these persistent, HIV-infected cells is a major impediment to curing
patients of HIV.

"Our
work provides evidence that HIV-infected cells can be tracked down and
destroyed throughout the body," said Garcia, professor of medicine and
senior author of the study published January 9 in the journal PloS
Pathogens.For people with HIV, ART is life-saving treatment that can reduce the
amount of virus in the body to undetectable levels. But as soon as treatment is
stopped, the virus begins to replicate again. This means that people with HIV
must be on medications for life. For some people, therapies are not without
serious side effects.In patients on ART, the virus either remains dormant or it
multiplies very slowly -- it persists, hidden, even though a cocktail of drugs
is aligned against it.

Garcia's
findings advance the so-called "kick-and-kill" strategy for HIV
eradication -- if the persistent virus is exposed, it can be targeted and
killed with a new therapy.

To attack
persistent HIV-infected cells, Garcia and colleagues used humanized bone
marrow/liver/thymus mice -- or BLT mice -- with entire immune systems composed
of human cells. This allows his team to study the distribution of persistent
HIV-infected cells throughout the body and test strategies to eliminate those
cells.

For the
PloS Pathogens study, the researchers first treated the mice with an ART
cocktail of three different drugs. Despite using strong concentrations of all
three drugs, the researchers found that the virus managed to survive in immune
cells in all tissues they analyzed, including the bone marrow, spleen, liver,
lung, and gut.

Then they
used a compound developed by co-authors Edward Berger, PhD, and Ira Pastan,
PhD, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of
the National Institutes of Health). The compound is an antibody called 3B3
combined with a bacterial toxin called PE38. The researchers hypothesized that
the antibody would first recognize cells expressing a specific HIV protein on
the surface of infected cells. The antibody would attach to the protein and
allow the toxin to enter and kill the infected cells.

When
Garcia's team treated humanized HIV-infected and ART-treated mice with the
3B3-PE38 compound and then looked for infected cells in tissues, they found
that the molecular missile had killed the vast majority of persistent
HIV-infected cells that had been actively producing the virus despite
traditional therapy, resulting in a six-fold drop in the number of infected
cells throughout the immune systems.

While
this reduction fell short of complete eradication, the finding offers a new
route of investigation as part of the multi-pronged "kick-and-kill"
strategy.

"The
BLT model represents a platform in which virtually any novel approach to HIV
eradication can be tested," Garcia said. "It helps us prioritize
which therapeutic approaches should be advanced to clinical implementation in
humans. This study shows that it's possible to attack and kill hidden
HIV-infected cells that standard therapy can't touch."

A
comparison of Y chromosomes in eight African and eight European men dispels the
common notion that the Y's genes are mostly unimportant and that the chromosome
is destined to dwindle and disappear."The Y chromosome has lost 90 percent
of the genes it once shared with the X chromosome, and some scientists have
speculated that the Y chromosome will disappear in less than 5 million
years," said evolutionary biologist Melissa A. Wilson Sayres, a Miller
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University
of California, Berkeley, and lead author of the new analysis.Some mammals have
already lost their Y chromosome, though they still have males and females and
reproduce normally. And last month, researchers reported shuffling some genes
in mice to create Y-less males that could produce normal offspring, leading
some commentators to wonder whether the chromosome is superfluous.

"Our
study demonstrates that the genes that have been maintained, and those that
migrated from the X to the Y, are important, and the human Y is going to stick
around for a long while," she said.Wilson Sayres and coauthor Rasmus
Nielsen, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, show in a paper
published online today (Jan. 9, 2014) in PLOS Genetics that patterns of
variation on the Y chromosome among the 16 men are consistent with natural
selection acting to maintain the gene content there, much of which has been
shown to play a role in male fertility. The Y chromosome's puny size -- it contains
27 unique genes versus thousands on the other chromosomes -- is a sign it is
lean and stripped down to essentials.

"Melissa's
results are quite stunning. They show that because there is so much natural
selection working on the Y chromosome, there has to be a lot more function on
the chromosome than people previously thought," Nielsen said.Variations in
Y chromosomes are used to track how human populations moved around the globe,
and according to Nielsen, the new research will help improve estimates of
humans' evolutionary history."Melissa has shown that this strong negative
selection -- natural selection to remove deleterious genes -- tends to make us
think the dates are older than they actually are, which gives quite different
estimates of our ancestors' history," Nielsen said.

Y has
degraded over past 200 million

Before
about 200 million years ago, when mammals were relatively new on Earth, early
versions of the sex chromosomes, X and Y, were just like other pairs of
chromosomes: with each generation, they swapped a few genes so that offspring
were a mix of their parents' genes. Fertilized eggs that got two proto-Xs
became females and eggs with a proto-X and proto-Y became males.But for some
reason, Wilson Sayres said, the gene that triggers the cascade of events that
result in male features became fixed on the Y chromosome and attracted other
male-specific genes, such as those that control development of the testes,
sperm and semen. Many of these turned out to be harmful for females, so the X
and Y stopped swapping genes and the two chromosomes began to evolve
separately.

"Now
the X and Y do not swap DNA over most of their lengths, which means that the Y
cannot efficiently fix mistakes, so it has degraded over time," she said.
"In XX females, the X still has a partner to swap with and fix mistakes,
which is why we think the X hasn't also degraded."Wilson Sayres was
fascinated by the strange history of the sex chromosomes and in particular the
lack of genetic variation worldwide on the Y chromosome compared to the variety
seen in DNA on the non-sex chromosomes. This variation, though used to chart
human history, was poorly characterized across the entire Y chromosome."Y
chromosomes are more similar to each other than we expect," said Wilson Sayres.
"There has been some debate about whether this is because there are fewer
males contributing to the next generation, or whether natural selection is
acting to remove variation."

Did fewer
males contribute genes to Y chromosome?

The UC
Berkeley researchers demonstrated that if fewer males were the only cause of
the low variability, it would mean that fewer than 1 in 4 males throughout
history had passed on their Y chromosome each generation. Variations in other
human chromosomes, including the X chromosome, make this an unlikely scenario.
Instead, they showed that the low variation can be explained by intense natural
selection, that is, a strong evolutionary pressure to weed out bad mutations
that ended up trimming the chromosome down to its essentials."We show that
a model of purifying selection acting on the Y chromosome to remove harmful
mutations, in combination with a moderate reduction in the number of males that
are passing on their Y chromosomes, can explain low Y diversity," Wilson
Sayres said.The researchers also found that all 27 genes on the Y chromosome --
the 17 that humans retain after 200 million years, and 10 more recently
acquired but poorly understood genes -- are likely affected by natural
selection. Most of the newer genes, called ampliconic genes, are present in
multiple copies on the chromosome and loss of one or more copies has been
linked to male infertility.

"These
ampliconic regions that we haven't really understood until now are evidently
very important and probably should be investigated and studied for
fertility," she said.

Wilson
Sayres was able to precisely measure Y variability because for the first time
she compared variation on a person's Y chromosome with variation on that
person's other 22 chromosomes (called autosomes), the X chromosome and the
mitochondrial DNA. She used whole genome data from 16 men whose DNA had been
sequenced by the Mountain View-based company Complete Genomics Inc., which has
the most accurate sequences of the Y chromosome. The company was recently
acquired by BGI, the Bejing Genome Institute.Cross-population studies of
variation in the Y chromosome are in their infancy, she said, noting that of
the more than 36 mammalian genomes sequenced to date, complete Y chromosomes
are only available for three. Most of the 1,000+ human genomes already
sequenced do not have sufficiently accurate coverage of the Y to make this type
of comparison among individuals, but advances in technology to better
characterize DNA will facilitate future analyses of the Y chromosome, she said.

6) Stem
Cell Replacement for Frequent Age-Related Blindness:

Age-related
macular degeneration (AMD) is the most frequent cause of blindness. Scientists
at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Bonn University Hospital and from the
Neural Stem Cell Institute in New York (USA) have developed a method for using
stem cells to replace cells in the eye destroyed by AMD. The implants survived
in rabbit eyes for several weeks. Additional research is needed for clinical
application. The results are now presented in the journal "Stem Cell
Reports."

About
four and a half million people in Germany suffer from age-related macular
degeneration (AMD). It is associated with a gradual loss of visual acuity and
the ability to read or drive a car can be lost. The center of the field of
vision is blurry, as if covered by a veil. This is caused by damage to a cell
layer under the retina, known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). It
coordinates the metabolism and function of the sensory cells in the eye.
Inflammatory processes in this layer are associated with AMD and
"metabolic waste" is less efficiently recycled. To date, there is no
cure for AMD; treatments can only relieve the symptoms.

Scientists
from the Bonn University Department of Ophthalmology, together with researchers
in New York (USA), have now tested a new method in rabbits by which the damaged
RPE cells in AMD may be replaced. The researchers implanted different RPEs
which were obtained, among others, from stem cells from adult human donors.
"These cells have now been used for the first time in research for
transplantation purposes," says lead author Dr. Boris V. Stanzel from the
Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Bonn. The discovery and
characterization of the adult RPE stem cells was performed in the group of
Prof. Sally Temple and Dr. Jeffrey Stern from the Neural Stem Cell Institute
(NSCI) in New York, USA. Dr. Timothy Blenkinsop at NSCI pioneered methods to
grow them to closely resemble true RPE.

Researchers
in Bonn developed the implantation techniquesThe implantation techniques for
the new method were developed by researchers working with Dr. Stanzel from the
Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Bonn. They allowed the stem
cell derived RPE to grow on small polyester discs, thus yielding a thin cell
layer. The researchers implanted this human RPE monolayer in rabbits under the
retina. "Our research group developed special instruments to implant the
replacement cells can under the retina," reports Dr. Stanzel. After four
days, the researchers used tomographic methods to check whether the replacement
cells had integrated into the surrounding cell layers. "The implanted
cells were alive," reports the researcher at the Department of Ophthalmology
at the University of Bonn. "That is a clear indication that they have
joined with the surrounding cells." After one week, the implanted cell
layer was still stable. Even after four weeks, tissue examinations showed that
the transplant was intact.

A new
approach for possible treatment of AMD

"The
results from the experiments prove that retinal pigment epithelial cells
obtained from adult stem cells have the potential to replace cells destroyed by
age-related macular degeneration," summarizes Dr. Stanzel. Moreover, using
the newly developed basic method, it will be possible in the future to test
which stem cell lines are suitable for transplantation in the eye.
"However, clinical application is still far away," says Dr. Stanzel.
More research is needed.

7) Elephant shark genome small and slow to evolve

Elephant sharks' DNA hasn't changed much in the 420 million years that bony fishes have been in existence, suggests a new analysis of the animal's genome.Callorhinchus milii is the first cartilaginous fish to have its genome fully sequenced. At 1 billion base pairs, the elephant shark has the smallest genetic code among sharks, rays and other similar fishes. A closer look at the animal's genome suggests that the fish do not have many bones because they lack genes that switch on calcium-binding proteins, researchers report January 8 in Nature.Elephant sharks also lack a major component of the immune system called helper T cells. The discovery suggests that acquired immunity evolved in two steps — not one, as previously thought.

In the
epic origin story, Kellan Lutz stars as the mythical Greek hero - the son of
Zeus, a half-god, half-man blessed with extraordinary strength. Betrayed by his
stepfather, the King, and exiled and sold into slavery because of a forbidden
love, Hercules must use his formidable powers to fight his way back to his
rightful kingdom. Through harrowing battles and gladiator-arena death matches,
Hercules embarks on a legendary odyssey to overthrow the King and restore peace
to the land.

Ancient
mysteries. Powerful evil. And a fearless hero’s quest through a fantastical
realm of steam-powered wonders and sinister magic… In THE ADVENTURER: THE CURSE
OF THE MIDAS BOX, seventeen-year-old Mariah Mundi’s life is turned upside down
when his parents vanish and his younger brother is kidnapped. Following a trail
of clues to the darkly majestic Prince Regent Hotel, Mariah discovers a hidden
realm of child-stealing monsters, deadly secrets and a long-lost artifact that
grants limitless wealth – but also devastating supernatural power. With the
fate of his world, and his family at stake, Mariah will risk everything to
unravel the Curse of the Midas Box!

The story
follows two abducted women and 50 other women who are forced to fight each
other using their bare hands. After Sabrina (Bell) is abducted, she finds
herself in an underground lair, forced to do battle with other innocent women
for the amusement of unseen spectators. Each of these reluctant warriors has
something to lose, but only one will remain when the game is done. Violent and
relentless, “Raze” takes its video game aesthetic to the deepest and darkest
places, rarely surfacing for air. “Raze” is produced by Cinipix and written by
Robert Beaucage.

Dumbbells
follows Chris Long (Drolet), an ex-NCAA star turned trainer who finds new
purpose when his gym’s shallow new owner, Jack (Richards), unleashes a
lucrative plan to turn the neglected business into a reality show. When Chris’
complacent peers resist this new direction, he and Jack form an unlikely
alliance that allows them to face the demons of their pasts (Jaleel White plays
the leader of an evil cult) and ultimately, save their gym’s future.

More
money flows through the family courts, and into the hands of courthouse
insiders, than in all other court systems in America combined – over $50
billion a year and growing. Through extensive research and interviews with the
nation’s top divorce lawyers, mediators, judges, politicians, litigants and
journalists, DIVORCE CORP. uncovers how children are torn from their homes,
unlicensed custody evaluators extort money, and abusive judges play god with
people’s lives while enriching their friends. This explosive documentary
reveals the family courts as unregulated, extra-constitutional fiefdoms. Rather
than assist victims of domestic crimes, these courts often precipitate them.
And rather than help parents and children move on, as they are mandated to do,
these courts - and their associates - drag out cases for years, sometimes
decades, ultimately resulting in a rash of social ills, including home
foreclosure, bankruptcy, suicide and violence.

Political
News This Week:

1) Scam
rocks Indian Military Academy; 3 Lt Colonels booked:

Unearthing
a major recruitment scam in the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, the
Central Bureau of Investigation has booked three serving Lieutenant Colonels in
connection with the case.Lieutenant Colonels Akhilesh Mishra, Jagdish Bishnoi
and Ambarish Tiwari have been accused of issuing fake experience certificates
to candidates in recruitments to group C and D cadres of the prestigious
institute in 2011-2012, CBI sources said on Saturday. A regular case was filed
by the apex investigating agency against the trio earlier this week, they said

The
accused, charged with forgery, conspiracy and issuing fake certificates to
candidates, are likely to be interrogated soon, they said, adding some arrests
in connection with the case may also be made.The accused officers had allegedly
issued forged documents to pave the way for recruitment of 34 candidates and
helped in replacing the original answer sheets of 16 others to help them clear
the written test, they said.

2) Yes, we
are in a hurry: Kejriwal on 'darbar' debacle:

Delhi
Chief Minister Arvind Kerjriwal on Saturday rejected criticism of his 'janta
darbar' and said though the exercise had turned chaotic due to
"mismanagement", the party had learnt its lesson.

The CM,
who had to leave the venue of the public hearing midway as hundreds jostled
with each other to register their grievances, said that he had not expected the
massive turnout, which reflected the "faith" of the people in his
government.Kejriwal said he had left the venue to avoid a stampede-like
situation.He admitted to the ‘mismanagement’ and claimed that he has apologised
to the people and collected complaint letters from them.

"If
listening to people's grievances this way is anarchy, then I think we have
forgotten the meaning of democracy. We have become used to decisions being
taken behind closed doors," he said while reacting to allegations made by
opposition parties about anarchy prevailing at the venue today."I agree
that there were loopholes in the crowd management. I have apologised to the
public," he said.

He said
that the public hearing, which was to be held by each of the six ministers on
week days and by the entire Cabinet on Saturday outside the Delhi Secretariat
building, has been suspended for the next three-four days."Next time, we
will hold a public hearing at a stadium or a bigger place and we will put all
the proper arrangements in place," Kejriwal told reporters."We had
made arrangement for just 700 to 1000 people, but more than 7,000 people came.
We were not expecting such a huge crowd,” he said."We want to go to public
to listen to their problems. Our government wants to work for the people. When
we sat on the road today, we came to know how many people want to meet
us," Kejriwal said.Responding to an accusation by the Bharatiya Janata
Party -- that he was taking decisions in a hurry -- Kejriwal said, "Yes we
are in hurry. If people do not take steps at the earliest, then this country
will not survive."

3) Devyani
Khobragade BARRED from entering United States"

Expelled
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, in effect, has been barred entry into the
United States.The State Department has said that her name would be placed in
visa and immigration lookout systems to prevent the routine issuance of
visa.Khobragade's departure from the US, State Department spokesperson Jen
Psaki said, does not alter the charges against the 39-year-old diplomat.

"Her
name would be placed in visa and immigration lookout systems to prevent the
routine issuance of any future visa and upon her departure a warrant may be
issued for her arrest," she said.From the comments made by the State
Department spokesperson, it is clear that Khobragade is being virtually treated
as a 'persona non grata' and she may be permitted to visit the US only to
subject herself to the jurisdiction of an American court.Khobragade, married to
an Indian-origin American national, has two daughters, aged 6 and 3, who are
now likely to shift to India.The US has said that Khobragade, who has returned
to New Delhi, no longer enjoys immunity and an arrest warrant might be issued
against her.

"Prior
to her departure, it was conveyed to her and to the government of India that
she is not permitted to return to the United States except to submit to the
jurisdiction of the court," said Psaki.On Thursday, Khobragade was
indicted in a New York court on two counts of visa fraud and misrepresentation
of facts."The charges remain in place. There are processes that are
standard processes in each of these cases, which we were abiding by throughout
this process," the State Department spokesperson insisted.

Arrested
on December 12, Khobragade was strip-searched and held with criminals,
triggering a row between the two sides.India had retaliated by downgrading
privileges of a certain category of US diplomats, among other steps.

4)
Expressed support for Modi as an independent citizen: Bedi:

A day
after she indicated that Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi was her
preferred choice for the prime minister's post, former IPS officer and
anti-corruption activist Kiran Bedi on Friday said she had not "joined any
political party" but had only spoken for herself.

"I
am speaking as a very strong, clear, independent citizen's voice. I am not a
member of any political party, but that's what I did even during the 'India
Against Corruption' movement," Bedi said.

She had
last night tweeted that, "For me it is India First! Stable, Well Governed,
Administered, Accountable and Inclusive. As an independent voter, my vote is
for NaMo."

Referring
to Aam Aadmi Party and her former Team Anna comrades Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant
Bhushan, Bedi, meanwhile, said today that it was them that had decided to form
a political party with a limited programme.

"I
spoke up as an individual and we were a group of individuals who came together.
Now, they have formed a party. They had their own limited programme, I have
none.

"They
have opened their account, let them learn some experience," Bedi said.

Interestingly,
when asked about his reaction to Bedi's 'NaMo' tweet, Kejriwal, the Delhi chief
minister, sought to downplay the matter.

"(Bedi
is) a free citizen and can have her own views," he said.

5) No
respite from cold wave in North India, 3 die in UP:

Three
persons died due to severe cold in north India where icy winds swept through
most parts and mercury plummeted by several notches.Delhiites also witnessed a
cold and chilly day with the mercury settling at 5 degree Celsius, two notches
below normal and the maximum temperature also showed a similar trend settling
at 20.4 degrees Celcius.Three persons died due to severe cold in Uttar Pradesh,
including two in Ghazipur district and one in Barabanki district, as night
temperatures fell in different parts of the state, MeT officials said.The
Srinagar-Jammu national highway, all-weather road connecting Kashmir with rest
of the country, was opened on Friday for traffic after remaining closed for two
days even as intermittent snowfall continued for the third day.

Meanwhile,
the ongoing cold wave intensified in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with
mercury plummeting to up to four notches even as a thick fog blanket continued
to play havoc with normal life in the region.Cold conditions further gripped
Rajasthan as the night temperature plummeted one to five degrees at most places
in the state and icy winds swept the region.Due to fog and mist in neighbouring
states of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, departure of Ajmer-
Jabalpur Express train was rescheduled, while eleven other trains were running
late from 25 minutes to about ten hours, a NWR spokesperson said.Himachal
Pradesh also remained under the grip of cold wave with icy winds lashing the
low areas and mercury dipped by few notches hovering around sub-zero
temperatures in some parts of the state.According to the MET department,
Nazibabad was the coldest in Uttar Pradesh at 0.5 degree Celsius while Lucknow
recorded a minimum temperature of 5.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees below
normal.

In
Himachal Pradesh, the sky was heavily overcast in Shimla and surrounding areas
received light snowfall, while the weather remained mainly dry in rest of the
state.

The
higher reaches and tribal areas shivered as mercury dropped by few notches
after mild snowfall with Bharmaur in tribal areas of Chamba recorded a low of
minus 13.1 degrees Celsius, Keylong and Kalpa in Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur
also remained at sub-zero temperatures.

Lakes,
springs, rivulets and tributaries were frozen in the region, causing sharp fall
in discharge of water in snow-fed rivers of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej in the
state.Rajasthan's sole hill station Mount Abu was the coldest place in the
state at 0.6 degree Celsius. While Sriganganagar recorded a minimum temperature
of 2 degrees C, followed by Churu 3.2 degree Celsius, Jaipur at 6 degree
Celsius and Jodhpur at 9.7 degree Celsius.The minimum temperatures in most
parts of Punjab and Haryana hovered between one to four degrees Celsius below
normal, the MeT office here said.

In the
plains of Punjab and Haryana, Amritsar was the coldest with a low of 0.4 degree
Celsius, which was three notches below normal.The minimum temperature at Hisar
was 0.7 degree Celsius, four notches below normal, while Narnaul reeled under a
low of 2.1 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.

The most
effected parts of Punjab and Haryana due to dense fog included Amritsar,
Ambala, Karnal, Hisar, Bhiwani, Ludhiana and Patiala, the MeT office said.The
arterial roads in Jammu and Kashmir also remained closed on Wednesday due to
snowfall across the Valley which continued intermittently till this afternoon,
leading to an increase in minimum temperatures in most parts.Srinagar recorded
a low of minus 0.7 degree Celsius, over one degree up as compared to the previous
night's low of minus 1.9 degrees C, a MET Department official said.Leh, in the
frontier region of Ladakh, was the coldest recorded place in the state with a
low of minus 17.2 degrees C while the famous ski resort of Gulmarg registered a
low of minus 10.8 degrees C last night.Pahalgam hill resort in south Kashmir
recorded a low of minus 6.8 degrees C and Kargil, also in Ladakh, registered a
minimum of minus 8.6 degrees Celsius against minus 9.2 degrees Celsius the
previous night.

6) Polar
vortex eases grip on frozen US:

The
United States is warming up from the polar vortex.As it continued its northward
retreat, the arctic blast still held sway over the upper Midwest, where it bore
down with below-zero lows early Friday.This should be its last stand in the
United States, as temperatures bump up day by day, the National Weather Service
said.

However,
the bone-chilling cold, snow and ice that gripped much of the country --
affecting about 200 million people -- brought about the biggest economic
disruption delivered by the weather since superstorm Sandy in 2012.The
crippling cold has left at least 21 people dead, including seven in Illinois
and six in Indiana.

A
commuter ferry navigates through the ice flow in the Hudson River between New
Jersey and lower Manhattan in New York.

The
frozen US side of the Niagara Falls is pictured in Ontario

Kids
climb into a car to be driven to school in sub-zero temperatures in
Minneapolis. Schools in Minneapolis reopened after being closed for two days
due to dangerously low temperatures and wind chills

Ice flows
jam the Delaware River in Trenton, New Jersey

The US
side of the Niagara Falls is pictured in Ontario.

The
frigid air and "polar vortex" that affected about 240 million people
in the US and southern Canada will depart during the second half of this week,
and a far-reaching January thaw will begin,

7) UK
storms 'worst in 20 years', and more on the way:

Weather
experts predict more flooding, with 96 warnings for England and Wales on Sunday
and another storm dueThe UK is enduring the worst series of winter storms in
more than 20 years, weather experts have said, as the country prepares for even
more flooding.The Environment Agency has issued 96 flood warnings throughout
England and Wales urging people to take immediate action, while a further 244
areas are on flood alert.Coastal areas – particularly in southern England – are
most at risk as they cope with a combination of unusually high tides and
another Atlantic storm on Sunday.

Forecaster
Matt Dobson for MeteoGroup said the rain "simply has nowhere to go"
after weeks of severe weather has saturated the ground and swelled
rivers."It's very unusual to have so many powerful storms come in one
after the other in such a short space of time, he said. "We haven't seen
anything like this since about 1991."The nasty weather of the last few
days is going to continue across the UK, with the combination of high tides and
a powerful storm putting coastal areas particularly at risk.

"Any
rain will mean more flooding as the ground is saturated and swollen rivers are
coming up against strong waves. The water simply has nowhere to go."The
Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings of ice and rain, predicting river
and surface flooding as well as travel disruption mainly in south Wales and the
south west and south east of England. Up to 40mm of rain could fall in higher
ground.Inland rainfall will put pressure on rivers, particularly the Medway in
Kent, the Thames in Oxford and Osney and the Severn Estuary in
Gloucestershire.The Thames barrier will remain closed to protect land near the
river.Strong winds, persistent rain and tidal waves are predicted for at least
another two days, as emergency services attempt to cope with the trail of
devastation already created by the severe weather.

More than
200 homes have been flooded from Cornwall to Scotland, with miles of coastline
battered and roads and fields across the country left under water.

The prime
minister, David Cameron, praised the "great work" of the emergency
services and Environment Agency in responding to the latest floods and defended
the government's flooding policy in protecting 200,000 homes.Meanwhile,
searches resumed in south Devon for missing 18-year-old university student
Harry Martin who was last seen leaving his home to take photographs of the
weather, with more than 100 people volunteering to look for him.Officials
around the country have pleaded with people to keep away as dozens put their
life at risk by going to coastal areas to watch as the storm brought waves up
to 40ft high crashing on to land.A man and child were almost swept away by a
huge wave at Mullion Cove in Cornwall as they peered over the sea wall to watch
the raging sea, and elsewhere in Cornwall vehicles driving on a coastal road
were swamped and almost washed away by a tidal surge.Elsewhere in Cornwall,
Sergeant Regie Butler pulled a man who had been drinking from the sea at Towan
Beach, Newquay, after he had ignored police warnings.In Aberystwyth, Dyfed a
man was rescued by lifeboat after he defied police warnings and became trapped
when photographing waves from a harbour jetty.In the town debris was strewn
across the promenade, rail lines in north Wales were left buckled by the power
of the sea and a road collapsed in Amroth, Pembrokeshire.

The
strong tides were said to be the worst to hit the Welsh coast in 15
years.Aberystwyth University has deferred the start of exams by a week and was
advising students not to travel to the coastal town until the middle of next
week.Emergency services rescued four people from a flooded farm in Llanbedr
near Barmouth, north-west Wales, the Severn burst its banks in Gloucestershire
for the second day running and a pregnant woman was rescued after 30 properties
were flooded in Cardigan, mid-Wales. Part of the sea wall behind the Landmark
Theatre in Ilfracombe collapsed because of the storms.The environment
secretary, Owen Paterson, said: "The worst of the bad weather is not yet
over so I've chaired an emergency meeting of all departments involved to make
sure that preparations to respond are in hand."Our flood defences have
worked very well and have protected 205,000 homes at risk."

Sports News
This Week:

1)
Bopanna-Qureshi end runners-up at Sydney International:

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi had to
be content with a runners-up finish at the ATP Sydney International after
losing the fiercely fought final, in which there was no break of serve, against
Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.

The
second-seeded Indo-Pak pair lost 6-7 (3) 6-7(3) to unseeded but very formidable
Canadian-Serbian combination in one hour and 35 minutes.

Bopanna
and Qureshi saved all five break chances on their serves but could not convert
even one of the seven chances they got in summit clash of the USD 511,825 hard
court tournament.

Bopanna
and Qureshi split $13,100 between them as prize money and earned 150 points
each while winners took home a combined prize purse of USD 24920 and 250 points
each. They Indo-Pak Express now head to Australian Open with some good match
practice under their belt as they aim to win their first Grand Slam. They had
ended finalists at the 2010 US Open.

2) Inane
India lose to efficient England in HWL opener:

India
paid the price for not doing their basics right and lost to England 2-0 in
their opening match of the Hero Hockey World League on Friday.

The
Indians looked pretty ordinary and elementary mistakes while taking penalty
corners made them look even worse. One such mistake cost them a goal, that too
at a crucial time.

England
were leading 2-0 with just 10 minutes for the final hooter when India fought
back and earned their fourth penalty corner. Rupinderpal Singh 'scored' from
the penalty corner but the 'goal' was disallowed after the video umpire found
out that the player who had received the push had stopped the ball inside the
circle before Rupinderpal flicked it home. As per hockey rules, the ball should
have been stopped outside the 'D' before the attempt on the goal was made.

India
struggled all through the first half as England set the pace, buoyed by the
return of two of their top players from an injury layoff - midfielder Ashley
Jackson and striker Mark Gleghorne.

The hosts
found it hard to test the rival defence but still managed to get back-to-back
penalty corners in the 15th minute. Both resulted in nothing.

England
forced the Indians to make errors in the defence which resulted in three
penalty corners in the space of six minutes. They hit the first one wide while
the second one was smartly stopped by PR Sreejesh. But Adam Dixon made the
third count, scoring from a variation to put England ahead in the 28th minute.

The loss
will have no bearing on India's fortunes in the tournament since the pool
matches will only determine who plays whom in the quarterfinals in the
eight-team event.

Even if
India lose all their matches and finish at the bottom on their pool, they will
still play the table toppers of the other pool in the quarterfinals.oEarlier,
World No.1 Germany did not let the absence of some of their star players affect
their performance as they routed New Zealand 6-1. Germany have came to the
tournament without their key striker Christopher Zeller (exams), ace defender
Max Muller (injury) and 2012 FIH Player of the Year Moritz Furste (family
reasons).

But that
had no bearing on the result as the Olympic champions scored three goals in
each half to cruise.The biggest upset of the day came when Argentina, the
lowest ranked team in the tournament at No. 11, beat the more fancied
Netherlands 5-2. Argentina maintained a 2-1 lead till the 50th minute when the
world No. 3 team equalized. But three goals in the last 14 minutes earned
Argentina a well-deserved win.

"The
result is the outcome of hard work, dedication and collective group effort of
the boys. We are here to win against the best and today's start was what we had
planned," Argentina's coach Carlos Retegui said.Belgium fought hard but
could not stop Australia from taking home full points in the tournament opener.
The Australians took the lead twice but the Belgians bounced back to level the
scores. When it looked headed towards a draw, Jacob Whetton spoiled Belgium's
party with the winner in the last minute of the match.

3) Messi
may not start Barca's showdown with Atletico:

Leaders
Barcelona have yet to decide if Lionel Messi will play from the start in
Saturday's top of the table La Liga clash at Atletico Madrid.The
brilliant Argentine forward made an instant impact when he came on for the last
30 minutes of the midweek King's Cup tie against Getafe after being out for
almost two months with a hamstring injury.Messi
grabbed two goals in the 4-0 win but coach Gerardo Martino is not sure if
second-placed Atletico will represent too tough a 90-minute test.

"He
looks fine and had a phenomenal 30 minutes in the Cup but he returned after a
long time out and the question is whether he is now ready to play a full game
at this level," Martino told reporters on Friday."We
will make a decision tomorrow. It's not really a case of asking a player how he
feels as they will usually say 'fine'.

"I
have to go by my sensations and look at different aspects to make a decision
which people will judge me on. I am the Barcelona coach and pick my XI and then
afterwards a decision will be made on how well I do," added Martino.The coach
said he might have been prepared to risk Messi if the Atletico game was later
in the season.

"With
injuries I usually think about the player first and then about the
opposition," he said."We
are not at a decisive moment like in April...we are in January and the priority
at the moment is the players and not the result."